Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Between Worlds

Between Worlds is an interactive walking performance and live installation using 52 handmade flags created from saffron hued turban cloth, carried by people transforming into an ephemeral installation in the Auckland Art Gallery Pool. We were inspired by the Rama exhibit, lakes and rivers features prevalently in many of the Rama miniature paintings the acknowledging of water is also symbolic of a point of crossing from place to place, making a journey to The Next World as in the story of Rama and the title of the final chapter which has inspired our title Between Worlds. Between Worlds opens up a universal context and shifts between - crossing the divide from the Diwali Festival and Auckland Art Gallery and making journeys in life crossing oceans and cultures to new places and peoples. 1 tonne of river stones fills 52 buckets forming the resting installation.

The inspiration for the 52 flags comes from the Sikh tradition and story of Diwali, the narrative as a metaphor for the procession that we will make has many relevant crossovers to contemporary life, migration, climate change, displaced peoples, the act of coming to new lands; fusing these universal narratives together in a localised Auckland multicultural context and the unique platform which gives a voice to contemporary art practice and navigates both physical and theoretical space between the Auckland Art Gallery and the Diwali Festival.